In her finest acting showcase, von Trotta plays a Baltic countess and communist sympathizer who falls in love with Prussian officer Matthias Habich in the immediate aftermath of World War I and the Russian revolution. The latter, intent on his mission to eradicate all traces of Bolshevik insurgency in the area, spurns her, favoring instead the company of her brother Rüdiger Kirschstein, his childhood friend. Marguerite Yourcenar’s novel was adapted by von Trotta, Genevève Dorman, and Jutta Brückner.

In German with English subtitles